


Breakfast Meeting

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:32:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4541676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper's due for a little time off, and Natasha means to see that she gets it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breakfast Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celeste9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/gifts).



> A birthday present for Celeste, beta'd by Bella.

            “I thought we’d have breakfast,” Natasha says, holding out a cup of coffee.   
  
            Pepper takes the coffee, which is enclosed in a tiny bone china cup edged in gold and duck-egg blue. It’s thick, dark, Turkish coffee that will deliver a vicious jolt to her central nervous system, and probably keep her awake for the next ten hours, which is very thoughtful of Natasha. If Pepper wants to survive her jet-lag and complete the merger she’s been working on, she needs to be awake for the next ten hours.   
  
            It’s possible that Pepper stares at the coffee cup just a little bit too long, even for someone who’s just got off a gruelling trans-Atlantic flight.  
  
            “I’m not trying to poison  _you_ ,” Natasha says, a little reproachfully.  
  
            Pepper doesn’t ask the obvious question. “Tony Stark is my ex-boyfriend.”  
  
            One of Natasha’s perfect russet eyebrows lifts very slowly.   
  
            “He once bought me strawberries as an… apology present.”  
  
            Natasha’s eyebrow falls and her eyes roll in exasperation. Of course, she knows the meaning of that statement; she knows what Pepper’s allergic to. Pepper once found her pinning a  _maître d’_  to the wall of a rather exclusive restaurant with nothing more than a steely gaze, carefully explaining every one of Pepper’s dietary requirements, and carefully not explaining what would happen to the man if he screwed up. She didn’t need to explain.  
  
            Pepper had found that sweet, really, but then, her last boyfriend was Tony Stark. She sips at the coffee. “I’m in Manhattan.”  
  
            “Yes,” Natasha says.  
  
            “Which means it’s at least ten o’clock on Tuesday the fourth.”  
  
            “Quarter to nine, actually,” Natasha says.  
  
            “Oh. Oh, good.” Pepper finishes the coffee. “I have an hour before my next meeting instead of fifteen minutes. Great, I can have a shower.”   
  
            “No.”  
  
            “What?” Pepper sets her coffee cup down with a little more force than necessary. “Has Tony broken the plumbing? I’ll… oh, God. I don’t know.” She buries her face in her hands. Why does she still live in Stark Tower? Why didn’t she buy a nice penthouse in a Tony-free zone, if there is such a thing in New York?  
  
            “No, not that. You don’t have a ten-thirty meeting.”   
  
            Pepper opens her eyes. Natasha looks rather pleased, although whether that’s because she’s disposed of Stark Industries’ Chief Finance Officer or because she gets more than an hour of Pepper to herself is quite beyond Pepper.   
  
            Natasha shrugs at Pepper’s vaguely outraged stare. “He cancelled half an hour ago. He’s not feeling very well.”   
  
            “Right,” Pepper says, pinching her nose and shutting her eyes. She feels a migraine coming on.  
  
            Cool hands settle on her temples, and tilt her face down a little. Pepper opens her eyes again to look into Natasha’s, and against her better instincts, she relaxes.  
  
            “We’re having breakfast,” Natasha says, and kisses her forehead, cool and dry and light. “It’s been a month.” She lowers her hands to Pepper’s waist, draws her a little closer. “And I didn’t poison your ten-thirty meeting.”   
  
            Pepper snorts. “I never doubted you, darling,” she says, wry and heavy, and Natasha, lovely, lethal Natasha, she laughs.


End file.
